In December of 1936, when about 100 American volunteers
for the International Brigades boarded the liner Normandie for Europe, they
discovered to their great delight that the touring company of the Follies Bergéres
was aboard, and, better yet, that the women were enthusiastic supporters of the
Spanish Republic and willing to give their all for the cause.

Casimir Pulaski, who perished in 1779 while trying to
capture Savannah
from the British during the American Revolution, was the son of the leading
landowner in Poland,
with estates so vast they included 14 cities and 108 villages.

Originally published in 1932, the translation of The Iliad that T. E. Lawrence "of Arabia" made while serving with the R.A.F. in India, was so
well-regarded it has been reissued nearly 20 times.

War with Spain being imminent, in March of 1898
Congress voted $50 million for national defense, to be used at the president's
discretion, much of which William McKinley chose to spend on two new
battleships and coast defense installations, though these could not possibly be
ready for several years.

During the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) , the Romans
maintained on active duty an annual average of nearly 16 legions, plus attached
allied auxiliaries of approximately equal numbers (though both contingents were
often under strength), for a total of 286 "legion years," the annual
cost for which was over 1.7 million sestertii, covering all expenses except
arms, armor, and cavalry horses, which soldiers had to provide for themselves,
at a time when liability for military service was property ownership of at
least 1,000 sestertii.

Because Britain
dominated Bengal during the later-eighteenth
century, it also controlled 70 percent of the world's saltpetre production,
essential for the manufacture of gunpowder.

In 1804, American inventor Robert Fulton attempted to
convince the French that an invasion of Britain could be effected through the
use of his recently invented submarine, which would destroy British warships,
and a fleet of steam tugs which would tow troop-ladened barges, proposals which,
considering the available technology and the normally inclement state of the English
Channel, Napoleon Bonaparte wisely turned down.

Although the militia turned out rather enthusiastically
and in commendable numbers on the outbreak of the American Revolution in the
Spring of 1775, it was not until a later that most colonial governments began
to make arrangements to feed the troops when on duty, and some states even
refused to supply militiamen unless Congress agreed to feed them.